Cry Macho (2021) * *

Directed by: Clint Eastwood

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Dwight Yoakam, Eduardo Minett, Natalia Traven

At 91, Clint Eastwood still possesses enough charisma and magnetism to nearly pull a simple, intermittently involving story like Cry Macho's to the finish line.   Even the iconic actor/director Eastwood can only do so much and Cry Macho takes its place as a notch below some of Eastwood's best films.   Cry Macho is a too-quiet movie about an aged loner looking for redemption by leading a wayward Mexican teenager named Rafa (Minett) back to his father in the States.  It isn't stirring, it's just there.   

Eastwood's Mike Miko was once a top rodeo star who worked for millionaire rancher Howard Polk (Yoakam) until he injured his back and retired from the rodeo.   In a brief speech before firing Mike, Howard encapsulates Mike's life until that point, which involved drinking, a tragic loss of his wife and son, and a failure to reach his potential.   One year after the firing, Howard asks Mike for a favor:  Travel to Mexico and find his estranged son whom he hadn't seen since the boy was six.   Mike, out of loyalty to his longtime employer, agrees to rescue the boy from his wealthy mother who abuses him and makes a living as a prostitute.   Mike finds the mother, who wouldn't mind bedding Mike even though at his age it might kill him.  

I'm assuming Mike is in his seventies, but the 91-year-old Eastwood is playing him, and we know he is 91.  There are times other characters seem to know this also.   One of Rafa's mother's thugs attempts to kidnap Rafa and is punched in the face by Mike.   The thug doesn't fight back, possibly because he knows if he punches Mike back he may crush his face.   How are we to expect to take this creep seriously if he wimps out like that?

Mike finds a romantic interest in a cafe owner who makes the second woman in the film who makes it known she's hot to trot.   I'm reminded of the period in Woody Allen's filmography in which the sixty-plus Allen paired off with hot blondes more than half his age (Curse of the Jade Scorpion, Hollywood Ending).  

Even though Cry Macho puts itself through familiar paces in which Rafa and Mike start out in a cold war which leads to an inevitable thaw and friendship, Eastwood is at his grizzled, tender best.   The fact that Eastwood is still acting and directing at his age is enough to make you treasure each film, even one like Cry Macho.   How many left will there be?